Local Kids to Perform Alongside Broadway Star in School of Rock at FPAC

The
Franklin Performing Arts Company (FPAC) will open their 2024-25
Season with School
of Rock - The Musical starring
Broadway’s Liam Fennecken October 18-27 at THE BLACK BOX in
downtown Franklin, MA. 

Fennecken will play Dewey Finn, a role he
played on the Broadway Tour of School
of Rock.
The production will be directed by FPAC Artistic Director Raye Lynn
Mercer and Broadway’s Clay Rice-Thomson (Moulin
Rouge, Matilda, Newsies, King Kong),
with choreography by Rice-Thomson and music direction by FPAC’s
Resident Music Director Hallie Wetzell. 

A
cast of talented young local actor-musicians from MA and RI have been
selected to play Dewey’s “band”: Scotty Kippenhan (Rockland,
MA) as Zack on guitar, Colette Lelievre (Bellingham, MA) as Katie on
bass, Owen Charles (Franklin, MA) as Freddy on drums, Grayson
Kerrigan (Norfolk) as Lawrence
on keys, and Aida DiChiara (Franklin, MA) as Summer the band manager.

Portraying the other musical students of Horace Green in School
of Rock are
Hayley Pezza (East Greenwich, RI), Matthew McGuirl (Millis, MA),
Helena Cornwell (North Attleboro, MA), Baree Frigon (Franklin, MA),
Hailey Hulbig (Franklin, MA), Ani Corkran (Northridge, MA), Liam
Kerrigan (Norfolk, MA), Whitney Williams (Montague, MA), Bella
Pereira (Mendon, MA), and Rowan Vadenais (Woonsocket, RI). 

Based
on the hit movie, School
of Rock
follows Dewey Finn, a failed, wannabe rock star who decides to earn
an extra bit of cash by posing as a substitute teacher at a
prestigious prep school. There he turns a class of straight–A
pupils into a guitar-shredding, bass-slapping, mind-blowing rock
band. But can he get them to the Battle of the Bands without their
parents and the school’s headmistress finding out? With its
sensational live kids’ rock band, School
of Rock - The Musical
is a loving testimony to the transforming power of music. 

Liam
Fennecken recently starred in Broadway’s Chicago
as Amos Hart. He toured the US and South Korea in School
of Rock,
and has toured North America with Once,
American Idiot,
and Peter
Pan 360.
He is a member of the viral a cappella sensation “T.3” with whom
he performed on America’s Got Talent. Fennecken is joined by NYC
actress Ali Funkhouser as Principal Rosalie Mullins and Boston’s
David Livingston and Anissa Perona as Ned and Patty. Rounding out the
adult cast are NYC, Boston, and local performers as well as Musical
Theater majors from Dean College: P.T. Mahoney, Melissa Baratta,
Michael Baratta, Elijah Bondar, Kim Frigon, April Lisette, Connor
Meehan, Nick Paone, Kylie Parsons, Kellie Stamp, and Isis Wilson. 

Franklin
Performing Arts Company (FPAC) is an Actors’ Equity Association
Small Professional Theater. Each season, FPAC produces musicals,
plays, ballets, and more featuring Broadway stars, professional and
regional performers, and emerging artists. Tickets for School
of Rock
and FPAC’s entire 2024-25 Season are available now at
FPAConline.com or by calling the box office at 508-528-3370.